Air Malawi, historically a good quality but far, far, too small an operator based in its landlocked central African home is, according to the country's newspaper "The Nation" yet again under review after having lost about $7.1 million in 2009/10 and $ 8.3 million the previous year. That is a lot of money for a very small business and a drag on Malawi's already overburdened economy. Passenger numbers and revenue both fell, thanks probably due to the general global economy but also a chaotic and inadequate timetable lacking in any form of coherance and not even delivering a respectable common timed service between the two major domestic cities, Lilongwe and Blantyre. The report also adds that "most of the company's equipment was not operational during the year, forcing it to lease aircraft for its operations." That can't have helped either.
If Finance Minister Ken Kandodo who vows that "government will continue efforts to ensure that parastatals will deliver on the essential goods and services to Malawians efficiently and effectively " had had the opportunity to read Airnthere's 19th April item "AFRAA doesn't get it", he would have had the opportunity to get rid of the furrowed brow and of this ongoing financial drain on the Treasury with litle further ado.
To repeat what we said then, the simple solution in cases of small unprofitable and for ever uneconomic national airlines, almost invariably overburdened with historic costs is to let them go to the wall, declare open skies to all comers provided they satisfy safety requirements and let the unsubsidised private sector and foreign carriers invest in filling the gaps. The result is likely to be more frequencies, more destinations, better service and above all, no further demands on the national exchequer.
Air Malawi has long struggled to overcome its high cost past and find a new role from the time that Zimbabwe came into being as a new state replacing Rhodesia under UDI. During the days of both UDI and apartheid in South Africa , Malawi under the late President Banda carved out a unique niche for itself as a crossroads and connecting point for business moving between the various countries which had no direct links with each other. Significant numbers of politically generated passengers travelled to and through Blantyre in particular and for a number of years it had a unique twice weekly hubbing operation on Mondays and Fridays when aircraft from all of these countries arrived within an hour or so exchanged passengers and flew out again. During the rest of the week there were a series of other "useful" connections. Air Malawi was also busy flying mine workers to and from South Africa until Banda suddenly halted the business following the crash of a South African Wenela owned DC4 departing Botswana thanks to being erroneously filled with jet rather than piston fuel. At the same time the airline had for a short time gone long haul with the purchase of a surplus VC10 from British Caledonian in the mistaken belief that the London route, profitable for a weekly BA service, could be the same for them despite this trebling route capacity at a stroke. The VC10 was an impressive looking and sounding aircraft but it gobbled both fuel and money at a massive rate especially when flying with low loads. Eventually a seemingly insoluable problem with a centre fuel tank leak and the need for a major overhaul grounded it and a brief flirtation with the idea of replacing it with a brand new $80 million or so Lockheed Tristar 500 was thankfully abandoned.
Psychologically and financially the airline has never really recovered from all these things which happened almost in parallel . The end of the VC10 and long haul aspirations, the collapse of Rhodesian UDI and the emergence of Zimbabwe, and the end of the South African mine labour traffic were a huge impact to absorb and coming close together in time were simply overwhelming. All this was compounded by the virtual closure to international of Blantyre, the destination of most commercial visitors to the country, to ensure that the new international airport at Lilongwe justified its existence. The costs and bills of this fell on Air Malawi's doormat through no fault of its own.
Ever since the early 1980s therefore, the company has struggled to reach an economic critical mass and to carve out a new role for itself in regional air travel. Despite the best of intentions, a fair product with a good safety record and operational standards and a lot of effort, it has not managed to find itself one. It is the right moment therefore, with no discredit to anyone, for Mr Kandodo to say "Enough is enough" and for the market to provide its own solutions. For sure it will, so don't bother to pay a smart international consultancy provider vast amounts of money to tell you that. Take it from here,- absolutely free.
